Moon and Mountain (a story)

-
On another planet the sun is hidden behind a mountain and the moon stands full with its eerie light. The inhabitants are in constant search of escape, of finding some passage around the mountain, some way to find the sunlight. They are tired of night living, they are tired of moonlight. There is a deep place that craves the direct light of the sun. 

But, one day the people become convinced that the moon is the only real thing. They are convinced that the moon is their God. They give up on their strange search for the other side. They lay it down and choose to combat the pain with simple things, numbing things, hard work, no work, drugs or health food, piety or hedonism. They lie down in their large bedrooms or they stand up on an underground train. 

The search is forgotten. It is no longer receiving attention from the best minds . .. it is sheer madness and utter foolishness. No one looks upon the great mountain with anything but disgust and occasional fear. Disgust because it takes up so much space, fear because it represents a very old way of thinking and consumed the thoughts and plans of many of their great ancients.

(The art is by Tara A. Campbell)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Hearth

-
Image
"A stove used to furnish more than mere warmth. It was a focus, a hearth, a place that gathered the work and leisure of a family and gave the house a center. Its coldness marked the morning, and the spreading of its warmth the beginning of the day. It assigned to the different family members tasks that defined their place in the household. The mother built the fire, the children kept the firebox filled, and the father cut the firewood. It provided for the entire family a regular and bodily engagement with the rhythm of the seasons that was woven together of the threat of cold and solace of warmth, the smell of wood smoke, the exertion of sawing and of carrying, the teaching of skills and the fidelity to daily tasks." (Albert Borgmann: Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life ) So what is our new center? Warmth is now provided in a completely uniform way requiring no demands on our skill, strength or attention. In fact, the warmth device (central heating system) is c...
Read more

Idolatry in the West

-
"in order to promote killing in civilized societies it must be legalized under deceitful names. Yet liberal societies seem happy to be deceived exactly to the degree to which they have developed into societies of covetousness." Ok ... I know you need more before you know where this is going ... I am reading a book of essays on the ten commandments. This is in a section talking about the relatedness of all ten commandments, primarily through the command not to murder. He goes from there to make the point that we are a society dominated by want and covetousness and the more the claws of greed entangle us (from human traffiking to slave labor for our cheap consumer goods, to "designer babies" and whatever else technology deems to sell) the more we will redefine sin and morality. Bernd Wannenwetsch continues: "the culture of death is essentially marked by the business of redefinition. In defining our own humanity we claim the property rights that entitle us to dist...
Read more